Improved VIA Rail schedules: More departures - More passengers

MONTREAL, Dec. 20, 2011 /CNW Telbec/ - In response to customer demand,
VIA Rail Canada will introduce new schedules in the
Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto triangle, effective January 24, 2012. These
important changes will attract some 100,000 new passengers annually.
The increased ridership will lead to an increase in revenues of several
million dollars per year. This will reduce the need for government
operating funding, good news for Canadian taxpayers.

Passengers on VIA's new Ottawa-Toronto express trains will make the
non-stop journey in just three hours and 57 minutes. These new trains
will operate every day except Saturday, leaving Toronto and Ottawa in
late afternoon.

Customers will also have the option of a new late evening departure from
Ottawa for Montreal (Sunday through Friday), allowing them to extend
their stay in Ottawa beyond the dinner hour. Ottawa-bound travellers
from Montreal will also have more end-of-day choices.

Passengers travelling from Montreal to Toronto will be offered two new
trains, bringing the total number of weekday departures to Toronto to
ten.

"These improvements are made possible by the federal government's major
capital investment in VIA," said Paul G. Smith, VIA's chairman. "We
want to thank the government for their confidence in VIA as a green
transportation choice, and their vision for a continued vital role for
passenger rail in Canada."

"Since 2007, the Government of Canada has invested $923 million in VIA
for capital improvement initiatives," said Minister of State
(Transport) Steven Fletcher "Over $400 million of this funding is
dedicated to rail infrastructure projects, much of this from the
government's Economic Action Plan. Today's announcement is a good
example of how Canadians are now going to benefit directly from these
investments."

VIA's President and CEO Marc Laliberté added: "Over the coming year, we
will complete other major rail infrastructure projects between Toronto
and Brockville, allowing us to further improve reliability, and
introduce more improvements, such as better trip times and more
departures, including additional express trains between Toronto and
Montreal."

In order to make these changes, VIA will be reorganizing its fleet
distribution and adjusting other train schedules to better align them
with traffic patterns and customer preferences. As VIA keeps moving
forward, it will continue to evaluate market response and demand, and
may make additional adjustments if warranted.

About VIA Rail Canada
As Canada's national rail passenger service, VIA Rail Canada's (www.viarail.ca) mandate is to provide efficient, more environmentally sustainable and
cost-effective passenger transportation, in the country's two official
languages. Every week, VIA operates 503 intercity, regional and
transcontinental trains linking 450 communities across its
12,500-kilometre route network. Winner of the 2011 RAC Safety Award,
VIA transports over four million passengers annually. Since 2007, the
Government has invested nearly one billion dollars in VIA in order to
improve and revitalize Canada's rail passenger service for the future.
Learn more at http://www.viarail.ca/transformingVIA. Follow VIA on Twitter at twitter.com/via_rail. Visit VIA on Facebook at facebook.com/viarailcanada.